The Ida Halpern fonds is a remarkable collection of audiovisual, textual, and photographic records documenting the songs, ceremonies, and culture of the northwest coast of Canada. Between the 1940s and 1980s, ethnomusicologist Ida Halpern captured an unprecedented quantity of sound recordings of cultural creations from leading Elders in Kwakwaka’wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, Haida, and Coast Salish communities. Her textual records include musical analyses of the songs and a wealth of information about the ceremonies derived from interviews with the Elders involved in the recordings.
Singers recorded by Halpern include Mungo Martin (Nakapenkem or Datsa), Pasala (Chief Billy Assu), George Clutesi, Florence Edenshaw Davidson, Gertrude Kelley, Tom Willie, Peter Webster, Joe Titian, Dan Cranmer, Stanley Hunt, Fred Lewis, Ella Thompson, Louis Miranda, Chief Adam Shewish, and Margaret Shewish.
Many Elders and singers recorded…